Technical Field
This disclosure is directed to processors, and more particularly, to load-store units in processors.
Description of the Related Art
Processors may be implemented using various architectures. One commonly used architecture is known as the load-store architecture. In a load-store architecture, memory access instructions are divided into two types: loads, in which information is loaded from memory to registers, and stores, in which information is written to memory from registers. Instructions in a load-store architecture may further be divided into memory instructions (i.e. the aforementioned load and store instructions) and arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) instructions, in which operations occur between registers.
A load-store unit is a specialized circuit unit implemented in processors having a load-store architecture. A load-store unit may execute load and store instructions to load information from memory and to store it back thereto. A typical load-store unit includes load and store queues for storing load and store instructions, respectively. The load and store instructions may be executed by the load-store unit, which may operate at least somewhat independently of other hardware units in the processor.